Abuse victim’s message to children: No one has the right to hurt them’

Saturday

Apr 26, 2014 at 10:44 AMApr 26, 2014 at 10:44 AM

By Jim.Hayden@hollandsentinel.com(616) 546-4274

Leslie Morgan Steiner has a message for daughters and sons about domestic violence — “Anyone can be vulnerable,” the survivor of an abusive relationship told a packed house at the Center for Women in Transition's annual "Reach for the Stars" fundraiser Friday night in Holland.“No one has the right to hurt them,” the best-selling author said.The event helps raise money for the center and its programs and included a dinner and auction at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, 650 E. 24th St. Last year’s event raised $85,000 for the center's programs and services.Morgan Steiner, 49, wrote “Crazy Love” in 2009 about her abusive relationship with her first husband. She graduated Harvard in 1987 and was a writer for Seventeen magazine.“If you knew me then, you would have said I would never have been a victim of domestic violence,” she said. “I’m not stupid.”Earlier in the program, a former Center for Women in Transition client shared the belief many have that domestic abuse only happens to other people.“Money, status or education will not prevent you from being abused,” the former client said before the keynote address.Morgan Steiner’s boyfriend isolated her from family and friends and five days before their wedding, he choked her and smashed her head against a wall.“The biggest lie is it would never happen again,” she said.They still got married and the abuse continued — he would attack her once a week or every 10 days.“I didn’t think I was a battered wife,” she said, until they disagreed about a trip to France. Then, she said, the flood gates opened and she was the victim of the worst beating in her life that twice left her unconscious. A neighbor heard the attack and pounded on the door until her husband left.“I left him and started my life over at 27,” Morgan Steiner said.She has since remarried and has three children.She told people in the audience to talk to their children about abuse.“You can’t stay with someone who beats you,” she said to tell people. “You can tell that to anyone.”— Follow Jim Hayden on Twitter@SentinelJim.